List brokers for American Family Publishers are hopeful that the mega-sweeps mailer’s decision to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy and reorganization Friday, will jump-start its list usage, which has fallen off over the last few year.
“It’s a good solid defensive move which will enable them to get their act together and to keep mailing, which is what their plans are,” says Uni-Mail president Mike Bryant, who has a long history as a broker for AFP which is also one of Uni-Mail’s largest accounts.
Bryant says that payments from AFP have “always been current” and that the company currently owes Uni-Mail a minimal amount of money, which he says is a non-issue.
“People get frightened when they hear the “B” [bankruptcy] word,” Bryant said. ” They think it’s all gloom and doom, but it’s the foundation for rebuilding the company in a solid fashion.”
Details of AFP’s assets and creditors are expected to be available for public review within the next several weeks, according to Frank Vecchione, a partner with Newark, NJ-based law firm Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione, which is involved with the case.
Nick Sarantakos, vice president of list brokerage for Stevens-Knox & Associates, says he “didn’t panic” when he heard about the bankruptcy filing. Sarantakos doesn’t predict a fall off in list usage from AFP as the bankruptcy proceedings move foreword. In fact, he believes AFP’s plans to diversify into new and different distribution channels for the sale of both magazines and merchandise, will revitalize its outside list usage.
AFP’s file is not on the market.
Other brokerage firms who work with AFP include Fasano & Associates and RMI Direct Marketing. Officials from both firms declined comment.
Over the past year, list brokers have looked on as AFP and other sweeps mailers, including Publishers Clearing House, have been besieged by lawsuits alleging deceptive advertising. Mail volume diminished dramatically as the mailers grappled with poor public image, list brokers say. While industry experts declined to quantify the decline in list usage by the stampsheets, some reports state that magazine subscriptions sold via sweeps offers were down by 30% to 70%.
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